Remembrance Protest Too Big; Ponamarev ArrestedOn Wednesday, demonstrators in Moscow gathered in memory of Anastasia Baburova and Stanislav Markelov, both of whom were gunned down on a main city street one year ago. About 1,000 people attended the meeting which was broken up by police, who arrested between 20 and 50 people including prominent human rights activist Lev Ponomarev. Ponomarev, who had organized the meeting, told RFE/RL that he faces charges for breaching the permitted size of the protest: police granted permission for a demonstration of up to 200 people, although previous demonstrations were authorized for as many as 500 protesters. "Such a charge is clearly not prescribed by laws. It’s a ruse by the police to exert more pressure on organizers of demonstrations," Ponomarev said.[read in Russian]

On Innovation, Kalashnikov Wins Over the Academy The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN) will approve several proposals put forward by the infamous blogger Maksim Kalashnikov, who openly declares his admiration of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin and advocates dictatorship as the most effective means for implementing innovation. President Dmitri Medvedev, speaking on national television in September 2009, ordered his government to review the proposals, which Kalashnikov submitted to in response to Medvedev’s article, "Forward Russia!" Vladimir Ivanov, Doctor of Economics and RAN member, told RFE/RL that even though Kalashnikov is not an academic, some of his proposals are valid and deserve consideration: "This is an exceptional case insofar as the request came from the country’s leadership. Therefore we want to make the discussion as open as possible and the presence of the press would be an obstruction."[read in Russian]